7 July 2006 - Update

Please forward this message to everyone who you think will be interested.

If you have been forwarded this message please subscribe your own e-mail address by clicking here.

For your friends without e-mail you can get them to subscribe to our mobile phone list. We can then keep them updated with the latest news and our next community events through our SMS broadcast system:
Ask them to send an SMS message to 0408 521 913 with the message "Save the Pool" and they will be kept in the loop!
(Your Privacy Guaranteed)

Home page

What can you do?

Who is to blame?

Have Your Say

(Eureka) Last Stand Pool Rally - Sunday 16th July 2006
This is it - the Last Stand at the Pool - a peaceful rally of a community fighting for a big pool like every other community in Victoria has - not a little shallow pool that is only 3 feet deep at the deep end. (at the exorbitant cost to rate payers of $9.5 million)

Ironically the time of the rally was the time that the Eureka Stockade started. We are hoping to have a descendent of one the Eureka Stockade miners in attendance to recite the Eureka oath!

Event: Sunshine Pools - Last Stand Community Rally
Location: The Pool in Kennedy St Sunshine  (Behind Bi-Lo)
Time/Date: Sunday 16 July 2006 11 30 a.m.

Why:
We have heard that the Brimbank Council plans to bust the Sunshine Pool Community Picket with security guards and then roll in the heavy machinery to bulldoze our community built pools.

What will we lose:

• 50M OUTDOOR POOL
• OUTDOOR LEARN TO SWIM POOL
• TODDLER'S POOL

What they are going to build for $9.5 million (plus GST):

• One small 0.9 metre (three feet deep at the deep end) Learn to Swim pool
• A Smaller Gymnasium
• Not much else

Are council committing to a "Stage 2" pool in the future?
No. Brimbank Mayor Natalie Suleyman stated at the last council meeting that no other work is planned for Sunshine for the long term. This has been confirmed many times by the Council recreation manager Carol Julian. We need this position changed so our teenagers can swim somewhere and so familes can recreate and have picnics while their children swim in a range of pools that suits all ages. Not just a hot overcrowded indoor pool setting with no pool access for teenagers.

What we want?
A replacement outdoor deeper water heated pool with a retractable roof for our youth, our schools and our families.

That's right, we want a big pool that we can use all year round like they have in other communities.

We also want this pool funded by the State Government under the Fairer Victoria policy. (Brimbank has the least aquatic facilities in Victoria while the State Government takes $30 million per year out of Brimbank alone in Pokie Machine tax - to date the State Government has earned $360 million dollars from Brimbank in Pokies and we want some back!

Who will be there?

• Local celebrities
• Trade Union speakers
• Local Musicians
• List to be updated shortly - see the website.

Pool Rally Auction:
To increase money for the Sunshine Pool fighting fund we are going to run an auction at the rally. If you can donate any items that we can auction off please let us know by replying to this email or drop your donation off at the pool picket line which is being manned 24/7. The money will go toward our media and communication campaign about the Sunshine Pool.

 

Community Pool Picket update

• At 7.30pm tonight some teachers from the AEU are coming to the picket line to help us coordinate with the schools for the Sunshine Pool Last Stand Rally on Sunday 16 July at 11.30
  
  
• Martin Kingham (from the CFMEU) and Kevin Bracken (AMU) will be coming down to support the picket line over the weekend.
  
  
• The Sunshine community's local schools, sporting clubs, community groups, churches, businesses, local people and trade unions are preparing and hanging banners of support on the pool fence next to the picket line to demonstrate just how much this community needs a decent heated outdoor pool for its youth, schools and families. If you support the proper redevelopment of the outdoor pool please feel welcome to bring your banner down.
  
  
• Petition forms are available if you want to pick one up or just come down and sign one.
  
  
• Donations from Businesses and local people are being gratefully accepted at the community picket line. If you have something to donate for the rally please drop by. Note: The picket is manned 24/7 so come on down!
  
  
• We will be broadcasting Pool Picket Podcasts on the website shortly from recordings made on the spot so that you can listen to some of the discussion at the pool picket and learn more about what this is all about. Come down and have your say and let the world know your thoughts about the demolition of the three outdoor pools in Sunshine!
  
  
• A DVD is being put together that includes highlights of the Pool Picket, previous pool rallies, newspaper clippings from the past four decades about how the pool was built by the community and about how the council in 2006 want to demolish it. Interviews with key players etc. More news about this soon.

Pool Picket Flyer
Support our picket by printing this flyer out and handing it around.

E-mail it, print it and pass around or make a copy for your bulletin board.
Download the Sunshine Pool Picket flyer in PDF

 

Click here for pool info sheet to hand around
(or put on your bulletin board)

 

 

www.savesunshinepool.com

http://forum.savesunshinepool.com

Brimbank Council & State Government Sunshine Pool Shame File

Brimbank has a population of over 170,000 people and has only one outdoor pool. Most other councils have 5 - 12 outdoor pools. Brimbank also has close to the worst health status in Victoria. But the Council and the State Government want to demolish 3 outdoor pools and gym and replace them with a small, shallow and very expensive indoor pool and smaller gym.

Join in the campaign to have the pools repaired or replaced properly now!